Small work-type vehicles, such as garden tractors and riding lawnmowers, have been in widespread use for many years. These small work vehicles save considerable time and energy for their users. However, as with any work vehicle, they require periodic maintenance and repair in order to keep them in good working order.
Because of the size and construction of these small work vehicles, it is difficult to perform repairs or maintenance on them when the vehicles are resting in their normal position on the ground. Thus, it is desirable to provide an apparatus for raising such vehicles to enable a mechanic or service person to more easily perform the required repairs or maintenance.
Apparatuses of many different constructions are found in the prior art for lifting vehicles of various types and sizes. Representative examples of such lift apparatuses are the ones disclosed in U.S. Patents to Fisher (3,779,517), Tune (3,838,783), Molnar (4,084,790), Tsujimura (4,267,901), Laupper (4,328,951), Naegeli (4,531,614) and Dossier (4,585,092) and in French Patent No. 2,333,745, German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,906,080 and USSR Inventors Certificate No. 385,898.
One prior art approach to lifting a vehicle for performance of service and repair, as exemplified by the Tune patent, is to provide a lift apparatus which can tilt the vehicle to an inclined orientation. However, the more widespread approach, as evidenced by the majority of the above-cited patents and disclosure publications and in particular by the Fisher patent, is to provide a lift apparatus which can elevate the vehicle while retaining it in a level or horizontal orientation.
The lift apparatus of the Fisher patent and a service lift stand apparatus manufactured and marketed by Riburn Industries, Inc., of St. Paris, Ohio, both employ a pair of spaced parallel tracks upon which the small work vehicle to be serviced or repaired is driven and thereafter rests as the vehicle is lifted above the ground or floor of the work area. However, the use of parallel support tracks limits the amount of unoccupied or open space below the lifted vehicle that is available to the mechanic or service person for servicing the vehicle or for removing components, such as a mower deck. Further, these prior art apparatuses, as well as others, have limited versatility in terms of being capable of accommodating vehicles of different size wheelbases.
Consequently, a need still remains for a service lift stand apparatus which will avoid the drawbacks of prior art apparatuses without introducing new ones in their place.